José A. Aznar-Sánchez

Sustainability dimensions related to agricultural-based development: the experience of 50 years of intensive farming in Almería (Spain)

In the context of the current agri-food market, several factors have made it increasingly difficult to balance the components of sustainability in agricultural-based development. These factors include increasing internationalization, tighter control of distribution and frequent changes in agricultural policies. Indeed, in the framework of European rural policy there has been considerable debate in recent years concerning the role of the agricultural sector and how it should face the following challenges: productivity-competitiveness, environmental protection and socio-economic development. There is, therefore, a growing need for practical analyses that adopt a holistic approach. This paper analyses how this sector in the province of Almería (Spain), based on horticultural family farms, has risen to the above issues over recent decades. This case study provides some insights into the different trade-offs and synergies between sustainability dimensions. In particular, the integration of ecological, social and economic components may prove useful in helping other regions to adapt their agricultural systems, especially where these are characterized by small-scale farming.

Territory, Cluster and Competitiveness of the Intensive Horticulture in Almería (Spain)

Almeria is Spains leading area for the production and exportation of vegetables. In this province we can find the largest area of greenhouses in the world, around which a major agroindustrial cluster has arisen. The present study follows a holistic approach to analyse its development and the modification of its sources of advantage. For this purpose, Porters theoretical and analytical framework is considered. The particular natural resources of the territory were fundamental in the growth of this sector in the 1970s, allowing it to achieve absolute comparative advantages. Nowadays, the agroindustrial cluster that has built up around the greenhouse industry has enhanced the competitiveness of the sector by generating systemic and dynamic competitive advantages.

Internationalisation of SMEs and simultaneous strategies of cooperation and competition: an exploratory analysis

The present work examines the relationships between SMEs’ marketing internationalisation and the combination of cooperation and competition strategies, i.e. co-opetition. Recent analyses have shown that the SMEs’ exports capabilities are highly dependent on co-opetition, while others suggest that the challenges of international supply chain constitute a major driver to this combination. This analysis contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on both of these issues. A multivariate regression analysis is developed, measuring variables of SMEs’ co-opetition and international activity, and taking as reference a set of 136 Andalusian food exporters. The results confirm the positive effect of strategies of cooperation with competitors (regarding logistics, promotion, quality and R&D) on international marketing activity. This positive effect is enhanced when large retailers are the main buyers, i.e. in hierarchical relationships. Furthermore, exporting activity is shown to promote co-opetition among suppliers. These findings highlight the importance of such strategies as regards both export capabilities of the food firms in this region and their expansion into new foreign markets. The empirical approach and certain implications drawn from the results can be extended to other analyses on SMEs in international contexts.

Heterogeneity of the environmental regulation of industrial wastewater: European wineries

The European legislation of the pollution of industrial wastewater shows a high degree of heterogeneity. This fact implies that there is a market failure with relevant consequences. Within the European Union, each Member State performs a specific transposition of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60. The member states introduce different sanitation fees to correct water pollution. In this paper, the case of the European wine industry is analyzed. It studies the sanitation fees of the five major wine producing countries: France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal. Results show significant differences among the wastewater fees and the study reveals how such heterogeneity leads to relevant market distortions. The research concludes that more homogeneous environmental regulation would promote more sustainable wine production processes with more efficient water management and purification systems, as well as the introduction of cutting edge technologies.

Territory in Clusters and Local Production Systems of Agroindustrial Firms

The territorial question in the analysis of economic growth has hardly been dealt with in academic works, and it was not until recently that interest in studying spatial aspects of the economy started to grow. Nevertheless, unlike the neoclassic model in which space was understood fundamentally as distance, territory adopted a passive role. Space was only a source of costs of economic agents. However, new theoretical developments propose reconsidering the role of space in overall economic philosophy, stressing its active participation in processes of development, in such a way that the “space” variable becomes one of the ways to promote the generation of elements (external economies and growing profits) which mean that the model of imperfect competence is considered as the theoretical starting point.